


Chocolate Snaps (Ralph WR600/Reader)

by e_n_silvermane



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Cute, F/M, Fluff, i love writing cute stuff. ralph deserves the world, if you love Ralph and wish you could comfort him and give him a hug... step right up, still in my feelings lmao, worth a quick read!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:21:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25436824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_n_silvermane/pseuds/e_n_silvermane
Summary: Seeking the zest of life, (Y/N) hops a fence to investigate an abandoned house one fine stormy night. There she finds someone to share a comforting hug and a package of chocolate snaps with.
Relationships: Ralph (Detroit: Become Human)/Reader
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	Chocolate Snaps (Ralph WR600/Reader)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! Quick few notes here-  
> This has been in the works for a while (and by a while I mean I wrote it like a year ago and didn't touch it until now lmao), so if you catch any serious errors (or even tiny ones!) please let me know. I do my best to revise but I'm only one person and I don't catch everything!  
> Secondly, you might not like chocolate or mint chocolate... for the sake of the story, please pretend you do, haha! I'd be happy to write you one with your own favorite candy, should you request it :)  
> Thirdly, ENJOY! I love you very much and I hope you have a brilliant day/night!

(Y/N) (L/N) stood in the 24-hour convenience store contemplating the candy bars while the cashier finished ringing her items up. Her two favorite candy bars, [brand name] and Andes, were right next to each other. It was odd. She looked up at Mags, the cashier, who smiled knowingly.

“You put them there,” (Y/N)’s tone was accusing, but the smile gave it away.

“Guilty as charged.” Mags laughed. “Want one for the road?”

(Y/N) glanced outside. At 2:37 A.M., it was pitch black except for the glow of street lamps and shop windows every few feet. In those alleys, anything could be waiting to ambush her and steal whatever goods she had. Granted, she didn’t know who in their right mind would mug her for a few cans of tomato sauce, screwdriver, and the 3 dollars and 2 cents she had on her person, but some people were definitely desperate. Rain rattled on the roof of the convenience store.

“Sure, I’ll take the Andes snaps.”

“So, what’s been up?” Mags said as (Y/N) handed over two dollars for the chocolate bar.

“Same old, same old. Saw Hank again tonight. Fifth bar, he said, and he wasn’t even smashed. Sometimes I worry about that grouch.” The (h/c)-haired girl didn’t even bat an eyelash.

“Me too.” Mags agreed, tossing back the chocolate-mint snap bar. With a shuffling of her bags, (Y/N) prepared to step back into anyone’s territory—which is to say, the night.

“Come back if you need anything or just want to talk,” the peppy girl behind the counter leaned on her elbow. “It gets boring in here sometimes.”

“Aw, Mags, are you lonely?” (Y/N) asked in a joking voice, and Mags giggled. “You’re asking the wrong person to stay. I’ll bore you to death even more than these empty aisles. In fact, I’ll tell you about how exactly the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and you’ll be fast asleep in no time.”

“I sure could use the sleep,” Mags laughed openly, now. “Your voice is better than melatonin.”

“Why, thank you!” (Y/N) returned the playful banter. “But I really must be going. Stuff to do, you know. Connie’s probably back from whatever party Steph dragged her to and to be honest, I don’t want to think of my couch getting ruined again, either by the level of drunk she is or by whatever guy she’s brought home with her.” Both girls shuddered, remembering the last time Connie went to a party with her girl friends and got a little wild.

“On that note!” (Y/N) smiled wide again, and Mags giggled some more behind her hand. “I’ll see you soon, Mags. Love ya! Wouldn’t wanna be ya!”

“Shut it,” the younger girl laughed even harder, and (Y/N) began to wonder what was so funny. “Go save your couch from the horrors of Connie.”

“Yes ma’am,” (Y/N) saluted and stepped outside, opening her umbrella to shield herself from the pouring rain.

As the convenience store automatic doors closed behind her, (Y/N) stepped out into the dark of night—early morning, really—and began the long walk home.

Rain sloshed around her boots on the sidewalk, and she frowned, wondering if there was going to be a flash flood warning issued. In any case, her apartment would be fine. It was on the second floor.

A flash of lightning lit up the sky and the immediate crack of thunder made her jump a little. ‘Maybe Steph was right,’ (Y/N) thought to herself, uneasy, expecting more thunder to spook her. ‘Actually, no. I needed to get that tomato sauce, otherwise we would’ve had nothing to eat but plain pasta and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Starting to think I should just do all the shopping for them, they always leave me to do it at odd hours of the night when I don’t want to go hungry the next day.

...I’m really petty, aren’t I?’

(Y/N) smiled a little at the thought of her roommates, who weren’t exactly careless, but never really did learn how to plan ahead. Connie and Steph were a sweet pair, though, so she hardly minded. The only thing she could do was try to teach them how to prepare for the future. For example, buy groceries for the coming week and chew them out about their negligence in the morning.

(Y/N)’s eyes had just gotten used to the darkness of the street she was walking on when another bolt of lightning sparked in the sky and lit up nearly everything around her. In the flash of light, her gaze had been attracted to the split-second blink of something blue beyond a fence—a fence that led to the house Mags had told her about.

‘Real scary place,’ Mags’s voice sounded in her head. ‘Haunted, some say. I don’t know if I believe it, though. Maybe some crackheads or homeless squatters, but I don’t think it’s haunted. Kids dare each other to climb the fence all the time. Hell, I used to be one of them. Too chicken to climb, but dumb enough to goad others into doing it. Nothing ever really came of it, though. I think we all got bored of it eventually. But you know how rumors go…’

‘They cross generations,’ (Y/N) thought to herself as she stared at the fence, now dimly illuminated in the far-off glow of a single streetlight.

Looking down at the plastic bag in her grasp, she thought for a moment.

‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Steph, in her mind.

‘Do the things you wanna do, you ain’t got a thing to prove to you. Well, actually, you do, by doing the things you...gosh, I was trying to quote a song, but it just doesn’t fit, does it,’ Connie’s voice echoed in her mind and (Y/N) had to laugh.

‘Be safe.’ Mags. The most resonant of the three. And the most clear minded, probably.

So that’s how (Y/N) found herself climbing a fence, soaked to the bone by the rain, umbrella folded up in the plastic bag that sagged on her back like a cheap rucksack.

“This better be worth it,” the (h/c)-haired girl grumbled to herself as she struggled to slip over the fence, getting one foot caught in the process and kicking and swinging so hard to get it free that she fell and crashed into the ground from six feet up.

(Y/N) couldn’t help the groan that fell from her lips. Half of her face was muddy, as were her clothes, and she had landed on her side, most likely bruising her shoulder and hip, which, incidentally, both felt like they were splitting apart.

“Oh, this better be worth it,” she muttered angrily, getting to her feet slowly and painfully, rubbing the sore spot on her hip and then deciding not to because damn, that hurt.

The house that stood in front of her did indeed look abandoned, and in the current weather and semi-darkness, quite ghastly. The windows were boarded up haphazardly and (Y/N) thought she heard a creak from the back of the house.

“If you end up getting robbed or raped or murdered, it’s all your fault.” (Y/N) kept talking to herself, which was a habit she had yet to break. “All your fault. You saw something blue and said hey, why don’t we hop a fence, poke around an abandoned house with no easy escape if things get hairy, and see if we can identify what that blue thing was. Because we really need to know. Absolutely. Uh-huh. That is what is most important right now.” But she kept forging onward, taking step after pained step, getting used to the disjointed feeling in her hip and shoulder, giving in to curiosity.

Peering in between boards, (Y/N) recognized a dining room—at least, what could have been one—and a fireplace with glowing embers in it. Her heart jolted. Someone had been there recently. Really recently.

She took a moment to check her watch. 3:01 A.M.

“I’ve got time,” (Y/N) murmured, trying the doorknob to her right. Locked. She went around to the other set of windows, but it was no use. She could only see the front room.

‘Okay, then leave. Clearly you’re not getting into the house, so let’s go.

Oh, but where’s the fun in that?’

As per usual, (Y/N) had an angel-devil-on-her-shoulders kind of issue. Logic versus curiosity never seemed to turn out well, but instead of leaving like her more logical side implored her to, she went around to the back of the house, looking for anything blue that she could’ve seen.

Nothing but an overgrown lawn—really overgrown, actually. (Y/N) could’ve sworn the grass was up to the clothesline by now.

Somewhere behind her, a tin can clattered to the pavement. (Y/N) whipped around, but was relieved (and almost disgusted) to see that it was just a raccoon on the other side of the street, digging into someone’s trash.

Then she felt cool metal press against the back of her neck. A knife, she suspected, as it ended in a point on her left side.

‘Called it. It’s all your fault for getting murdered, (Y/N) (M/N) (L/N).’

Panic was running through her veins, seemingly emulating from her body in waves, but it wasn’t raw terror yet. She didn’t know who the aggressor was, what they wanted, if they were reasonable—

A quiet, shaky tone spoke up from behind her.

“Ralph doesn’t like visitors.”

(Y/N) felt the point of the knife begin to dig into her skin.

“Not human ones, no. Ralph doesn’t want any more human visitors.” The soft tone grew slightly in volume. Whoever was speaking sounded very, very upset.

Caretaker? (Y/N) wondered, and chanced a slow movement of her head, trying to see who was behind her.

A funny little glow met the corner of her eye. Red. Tiny and pulsing. She wondered vaguely what it was, and pushed a little further, turning so she could see her aggressor.

What surprised her was not the LED blinking and twirling red in the side of his head, nor was it the white and silver gleaming from his hand on the knife. It was the deep blue scars that littered the left side of his face, crisscrossing and melting blue blood in the rain.

“Are you okay?” The question slipped out of (Y/N)’s mouth before she could even think about it, and she could’ve kicked herself for how stupid of a question it was. “I-I mean, uh, your...the blue...um...will you be okay?”

The android was taken aback, but recovered quickly. “Oh, no no no. That won’t work on Ralph. Humans don’t care about what happens to Ralph.”

‘He’s getting angry,’ (Y/N) noted as she tried to calm down her racing heart.

“Especially not you. There’s a knife on your neck and you ask the one holding the knife if he is okay?” The android, presumably Ralph, gave a startling laugh that could’ve belonged to a hyena, and then he quieted down instantly, glaring at her again. (Y/N) gulped and waited.

One minute, two minutes. Three. Four.

“Are you going to kill me?” (Y/N) asked. “Because if you are, I want to eat my chocolate snaps first.”

The android’s LED slowed to a thrumming yellow color. Good, now he wasn’t angry, just very, very confused.

“Don’t know...don’t know…” Ralph tilted his head to the side, and the pressure on the knife eased up just the slightest bit. “This human is a strange human. Ralph wants to know why.”

A pause. “Ralph wants to know what chocolate snaps are, too.”

(Y/N) took a breath and said, “Do you think we could talk inside the house? It’s cold and rainy and I’d rather be someplace warm.”

Ralph seemed to mull over this concept for a bit, making odd little noises here and there. Finally, he looked up with a grin.

“Yes, yes, yes. Ralph will show you inside the house and you can tell him about why you are very strange, but—” the lax grip he had previously had on the knife tightened noticeably- “—just in case the strange human tries anything, the knife will stay here.”

“Sounds reasonable.” (Y/N) prayed to whatever entity was listening that she would live another day as she carefully rounded the house once more, shivering under the point of Ralph’s knife and the freezing rain. The porch was dry, which was nice. Ralph stepped forward to open the door, and prodded (Y/N), who tentatively climbed the last stair into the low-level dwelling.

Ralph nudged the door closed with his heel and let the knife fall away from her neck. (Y/N) wondered if he’d forgotten that he was supposed to keep it there while she talked to him, but before she could say anything, the knife was under her chin and he was taking her by the arm, guiding her to sit by the fireplace where the embers were fewer but still gleaming faintly. It was pleasantly warm inside the house, although the (h/c)-haired girl was sure it would get colder.

The android seemed to struggle with something, hazel-and-darkened-blue eyes blinking furiously with a sea of emotions.

“Where to begin? Where to begin?” He questioned quietly.

“My name is (Y/N),” said (Y/N). “How’s that?”

He looked up at her, squinted, and then smiled. “Very good! Very good, yes. (Y/N). Ralph thinks…” a hesitation, a sideways glance, “Ralph thinks it suits you. It’s very pretty.”

“Thank you.” (Y/N) bowed her head.

“What about chocolate snaps?” His halting, quick way of speaking caught her off guard, but she smiled at him and slowly shifted to hold up the plastic bag with her belongings in it, doing her best to keep the knife from slicing open the skin under her jaw.

“They’re these little treats,” she pulled out the green-and-brown wrapped bar of snaps and began to peel the shiny paper back. “Andes chocolate snaps.”

“Chocolate,” he mused. “Theobroma cacao, cocoa pods...Ralph knows about the chocolate part, what about the snap part?”

“Well, um, I hate to disappoint—” (Y/N) winced as his LED circled once red and the knife prodded her chin a little too rudely- “—but they don’t really snap. Or maybe they make a snapping noise when you break them apart? It’s kind of like those cookies, uh, ginger snaps. They’re just kinda...called that. But these do have a little bit of mint in them…?”

Ralph blinked and took a moment to process the information. Then he relaxed a little, and took the knife away from (Y/N)’s neck. “Tell more.”

“What do you want to know?” Despite being relieved that the android wasn’t actively threatening her, (Y/N)’s eyes flickered between Ralph and the knife now resting at his side.

“Is the human scared?” He asked in a hushed tone, and (Y/N) wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Maybe of the knife, a little,” She said, trying to be honest. “But not of you. You’re very curious to me.”

A tiny smile twitched at his lips, and then disappeared, turning into an upset frown that (Y/N) recognized was not just anger.

“Ralph has to keep the knife by him, always. Ralph can’t be too careful...humans are very tricky. You can never predict them.” Tapping. Fidgeting. He hugged himself closer and (Y/N) wondered about the scars on his face.

In a near-silent whisper, the (h/c)-haired girl asked, “What did they do to you?”

The android before her stared bullet holes into the floor, a far-away look in his glassy eyes. “Ralph...Ralph was just minding his own business. Taking good care of the azaleas.” He stopped tapping for a moment to trace lines on the floor. “Azaleas are a part of the Ericaceae family, you know.”

“I do.” (Y/N) nodded carefully.

“Tending to the azaleas…” He began to tap his fingertips against the wooden floor again, LED flashing quickly between yellow and red. “And there were three, three of them, Ralph asked if they needed help, Ralph tried to tell them it wasn’t their yard, but one had a bat, and one had something that spit fire,” he was rocking back and forth now, face buried in his knees, “and, and, and Ralph tried to get up, he did, but they kept beating him back down, and then, then fire, then this,” he clutched at the left side of his face and curled up tighter.

(Y/N) was about to tell him he didn’t have to finish if it made him this upset when he finally continued.

“And then Ralph couldn’t see. But he ran. He ran, he ran, he ran,” the android chanted as if repeating a mantra, “and he came here, but there was a man, and he got scared and angry and...and now the man is dead, and it’s all Ralph’s fault—” the tapping had escalated, but now he slammed his fist down on the floor, and (Y/N) jumped. “All Ralph wanted to know was what he did wrong! What did he do? What did he do?” Back to hugging and rocking back and forth, back and forth.

This was not how (Y/N) expected her night to go, but she wasn’t about to leave this poor android all alone, so instead of following the logic that her mind was screaming at her (‘make a break for the door, he won’t chase you!’), she scooted forward to lay a gentle hand on his back. Instantly, his movements stilled, and he didn’t look up, but she could feel the tension in his body. Expecting her to hit him. Expecting her to hurt him. Unbidden tears came to her eyes at this realization, and she told him,

“Ralph did nothing wrong.”

It took a while for him to relax and unfold, but (Y/N) sat next to him all the while, rubbing soothing circles between his shoulder blades and patting him lightly. Eventually he looked up and the (h/c)-haired girl was surprised and even more saddened to see tear tracks glistening on his synthetic skin.

“What makes the human so strange?” He asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” She responded, not really knowing how to answer his question.

“Humans aren’t nice to androids.” There was a pause. “So why are you? Ralph knows you’re a human. Warm, soft, bleeds red.”

“How did you-” (Y/N) felt the back of her neck where she remembered being pricked by the knife. She didn’t think it had bled, but sure enough, a rusty smear came back on her fingertips.

“Ralph is sorry,” He said guiltily, like a child caught trying to sneak a cookie from the jar.

No matter how hard she tried, (Y/N) couldn’t be mad at him.

“It’s okay. And, well, I’m not sure why I’m strange. Could be the way I was raised, could be something a little extra in the back of my mind telling me what it is to be human. I don’t know. It just seems to me like you deserve a little bit of niceness right now.”

The last of his tension dissolved with that statement, and he blinked at her. “You are a good human, (Y/N).”

“Thank you.” She smiled at him, and a thought came to mind. “Do you—can you taste things?”

“Don’t know…” Ralph tilted his head to the side. “Ralph has never tried to taste something.”

“Well, here.” She took his hand with a touch lighter than a feather and placed a chocolate snap in his palm. “Chocolate always makes me feel better when I’m sad.”

Ralph looked at the little bit of mint chocolate and raised it to his mouth, giving it a nibble. (Y/N) knew he could taste it when his eyes went wide and he smacked the palm of his hand against his mouth, munching on the chocolate happily.

“Ralph thinks chocolate snaps are wonderful,” the android squirmed around in joy and giggled. “Can he have another?”

“Of course.” (Y/N) smiled and plucked another snap from the bar, handing it to Ralph, who was practically bouncing with glee, LED glowing blue for the first time since they had met.

Back and forth they went, exchanging chocolate snaps while the last embers burnt out. Sometime in the hour the clouds moved on, the rain slowed to a trickle, and moonlight shone through the gaps in the boards across the windows.

Ralph fell silent after (Y/N) let him have the last chocolate snap.

“(Y/N) has to leave, doesn’t she?”

She thought about it a long while. His LED shone in the darkened room, pulsing yellow once more.

“Eventually, yes.”

Ralph made a saddened noise that just about broke her heart.

“But maybe when the morning comes. Right now we can stay right here.” She reached out to him and he let her envelope him in a warm hug.

“Ralph would like it...Ralph would like it a lot if (Y/N) kept talking.” If she didn’t know any better, she would say that he sounded tired.

(Y/N) tucked Ralph closer to her side and stroked his hair calmingly. “I don’t know what I would talk about. I don’t exactly have an interesting life.” She thought for a moment. “I could sing, though. I must have a hundred different favorite songs.”

“Ralph wouldn’t mind hearing (Y/N) sing,” He murmured. “As long as it’s a quiet song.”

“How about Amazing Grace?” She asked, and could’ve sworn she felt him frowning in confusion.

“Sounds pretty,” he eventually replied. “Yes, Ralph would like to hear it.”

(Y/N) began to sing softly.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound  
That saved a wretch like me…  
I once was lost, but now am found  
Was blind, but now I see.”

Ralph stirred a little in her arms, but settled back to listen.

“‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,  
And grace, my fears relieved  
How precious did that grace appear,  
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,  
I have already come  
‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,  
And grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me,  
His word my hope secures  
He will my shield and portion be,  
As long as life endures.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,  
Bright shining as the sun,  
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise  
Than when we’d first begun.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound  
That saved a wretch like me…  
I once was lost, but now am found  
Was blind, but now... I see.”

The song tapered off gently and (Y/N) fell silent, wondering if Ralph was asleep—or whatever resting mode androids could be in. He wasn’t, though.

“Ralph thinks that Amazing Grace is a very pretty song.” His voice came even softer than the sprinkling of rain outside. (Y/N) would’ve had to strain to hear him, had she not already been so close.

“It is.” (Y/N) closed her eyes, remembering soft candlelight and bedtime stories. “My mom used to sing that to me when I was really little. It would help me fall asleep.”

Ralph nodded thoughtfully. “A sleeping song, yes. It is a sleeping song.”

Another few moments of silence. (Y/N) realized how tired she really was. Scaling a fence, being petrified, making a new friend, and comforting her new friend all in the span of a couple hours was exhausting to her simply because it differed so much from her regular (or at least, as regular as regular can get) life.

“Ralph thinks someday he may sing that to (Y/N).” His whisper was so quiet that at first she wasn’t sure she actually heard it.

“I would like that, Ralph. I would really like that.” A yawn cut her off, and sleepily, she curled closer to the android. The last thing she saw that night was the happy, circling blue of his LED glowing in the dark.

🎕

(Y/N)’s eyelids fluttered open sometime in the golden haze of late morning. At first she didn’t recognize at all where she was and laid on the wooden floor for a few minutes, trying to figure out where she had been for the last eight or so hours. The windows were boarded up…

Then it all came rushing back to her, and she sat up, looking around for the android she had met the night before. (Y/N) wasn’t sure where she expected him to be, but he wasn’t in the room. She listened carefully for a moment, and there was no sound other than birds chirping outside.

The (h/c)-haired girl slowly got up, nursing the sore spots on her hip and shoulder. At least that part wasn’t a dream.

Rising to her feet and gathering the chocolate snaps wrapper, umbrella, and grocery bag, she took one last look around the room and walked out the front door.

The house sat in silence. Ralph peered around the corner into the main room, to see that the strange human had left.

Well, not really.

The door swung open again and Ralph jumped back behind the wall, but heard her voice call out,

“I’ll be back soon, Ralph! Don’t you miss me, now!”

The door shut again and the silence returned, but with a lighter air this time. The blonde android smiled to himself and giggled a bit. Now all he had to do was keep himself occupied until his friend returned.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Do leave a comment if you wish to tell me something about the story - what you liked, what you didn't like, what should be fixed, what you want to see next, etc! I love you lots lots lots and hope for you to have many blessings this fine week <3 <3 <3


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